Videos have been slowly leaked onto the web over the past week but this one completely blew me away.

As an advocate for video games, I am often asked if there are actual benefits to playing them. I think will start pointing them to this video as a perfect example of how games can help enhance perspective and spatial reasoning.

And incidentally, yes, I have technolust at this very moment… oh, and a birthday coming up :::cough::::

Tyler

-Update-

As posted in the comments section by WC, it looks like this is simply a 3D game created for the regular DS (but not available in the US). Props to WC for picking this up and pointing is out.

I’m gonna keep the post up though as it still does show us a taste of what 3D gaming could hold and definitely emphasizes the educational aspects of gaming. That, and it still whets my technolust palate.

5 Comments

As for the benefits of video games, have you read Steven Johnson’s Everything Bad is Good for You? It’s become my mantra, especially when I find myself still playing at 11 at night!

2.WC | March 25, 2010 at 6:57 am

I have the game above, and have played it on a (Japanese) DSi LL. It is -not- using the new Nintendo 3DS hardware. It’s just a DSi game.

The use of the camera to determine the location of your head is neat, but it needs good lighting conditions. That’s not so hard, though.

But even with really good lighting, it’s still a little iffy on controlling it.

Don’t get me wrong, it was tons of fun and WELL worth the 500 yen for the game itself. It just isn’t perfect. :)

Sadly, there are no plans to bring this to the US yet. I keep hoping they’ll hear the buzz on it and realize they can make a ton of money on it here. It would be really, really easy to localize.

I’m very much looking forward to the release of the 3DS, too, though.

3.Tyler | March 25, 2010 at 8:30 am

Oh interesting and thank you for clarifying.

I am going to assume that the lighting issues would be addressed in the real 3DS version (as handheld consoles tend to do with updated versions).

4.WC | March 25, 2010 at 8:36 am

Hmm… I think it’ll be a completely different technique.

This just uses Johnny Lee’s WiiMote headtracking idea to present a pseudo-3d environment. (Which is totally awesome, of course.)

The Nintendo 3DS will be showing a different image to each eye which produces a realistic 3D effect with real depth. I don’t know -how- they’re going to do it, but at this point I assume it’ll require that you have the 3DS at a 90 degree angle to your face to get the proper 3D effect. If you move left or right, the effect will stop working. Again, that’s my assumption from what I know of current 3D technologies. If they somehow manage to implement reliable headtracking as well, the effect would be way, way cooler.

5.Tyler Rousseau | March 25, 2010 at 8:48 am

I wonder if I will actually be able to play a 3DS. I get motion sickness from IMAX and various other motion simulations. I wonder if this type of gaming would actually cause the same sensations…

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